CAMPAIGNING FOR CITY HALL: TV ADS

CAMPAIGNING FOR CITY HALL: TV ADS; Candidates Choose to Spin the Wheel, or Punt

By ERIC LIPTON

Published: September 9, 2001

Mark Green likes the prime-time sitcoms, from ''Spin City'' to ''Friends'' to ''Dharma and Greg.'' Fernando Ferrer is placing an expensive bet on the Giants-Broncos season opener tomorrow night. Peter F. Vallone has a certain affinity for television shows set in Queens. And Alan G. Hevesi, it turns out, is a courtroom drama guy.

It's not as if the four Democrats trying to take over City Hall have that much spare time to watch much television, especially in recent weeks. But as the airwaves across the New York City region have filled up in recent days and nights with nearly nonstop political commercials, it has not been an irrational blur of spending, at least when it comes to the Democrats. The campaigns, approaching record-setting totals in their television advertising spending for a mayoral primary, have been making strategic and political decisions about just what it is they are buying in a way that signals what kind of voters they are trying to reach before Tuesday's primary.

For Michael R. Bloomberg, the businessman competing for the Republican Party nomination, there is virtually no limit to spending. He is blanketing the airwaves, from morning to night. He bought 3,383 spots through last Wednesday, at a cost of nearly $13 million, according a count by the Campaign Media Analysis Group, a Washington-based television data company. That is more than the rest of the candidates combined. This sweeping approach does include some trends, such as spots that appeared during college football games yesterday and the Le Mans auto race today.

The Democrats must pick their spots more carefully.

Unlike Mr. Bloomberg, who is financing his campaign with a piece of his own fortune, the Democrats have only $2 million to $3 million to spend on television because they are honoring a $5.5 million spending cap on their overall primary expenses in return for help from the city to pay for their campaigns. Mr. Bloomberg's Republican opponent, Herman Badillo, has not had a single television ad yet, as he has had trouble raising money. His hopes of getting on the local airwaves were further dimmed Friday when the Campaign Finance Board would not release to him $1 million in matching funds.

Each of the other main candidates, Mr. Bloomberg included, is snatching up time on news-related programs like ''60 Minutes,'' ''Face the Nation'' and ''Nightline.'' Well-educated adults and political junkies (read likely voters) tend to watch these programs. All the campaigns also like such shows as ''Wheel of Fortune'' and ''Access Hollywood,'' which attract older, larger audiences that start to tune in during the early evening, but can still be had at a lower-than-prime-time price. ''Oprah'' and daytime soap operas were also must-buys for each of the five campaigns, as they help deliver female voters.

Once prime time begins, the Democrats are making choices about how to invest their money. Not surprisingly, these decisions reflect some of the basic themes of their campaigns or other strategies, according to the ad buyers for the candidates.

''In a perfect world, or in a Mike Bloomberg world, you can buy everything and you can reach everybody,'' said David Axelrod, the media consultant for Mr. Ferrer, the Bronx borough president. ''But in the imperfect world in which the Democratic candidates must operate, you have to pick and choose. And when you pick and choose you want to pick viewers who are most likely to respond to your message and, of course, who are most likely to vote.''

Mr. Vallone, the City Council speaker and the candidate whose campaign has, to a large extent, been directed at the elderly and middle class white and black residents in boroughs outside Manhattan, is buying heavily in situation comedies that generally appeal to an older, more middle class audience. Last week, for example, according to reports provided by CBS he was the only Democratic mayoral candidate to buy advertisements on ''King of Queens'' and ''Everybody Loves Raymond,'' which is actually set just over the city line in Nassau County.

''We try to skew a bit older, with our message and our candidate,'' said David Doak, Mr. Vallone's media consultant, who has produced advertisements for the speaker that focus on a prescription drug program for the elderly.

Mr. Green, meanwhile, was the only candidate last week to buy spots on ''Dharma and Greg,'' ''Spin City,'' ''Friends'' and ''Will & Grace,'' comedies on ABC and NBC that generally have a younger, more liberal audience. He also bought spots on ''Late Show With David Letterman,'' but unlike the other Democrats last week, he skipped the ''Tonight Show With Jay Leno.'' And he bought more spots on ''Martha Stewart Living'' last week than his rivals, a show that appeals to higher-income women.

Mr. Hevesi made many of the same buys as his competitors, including time during news programs, daytime soap operas, evening game shows and entertainment shows. But when it came to prime-time shows, his campaign invested heavily last week in hard-edged courtroom dramas and police shows, including ''The Practice,'' ''Diagnosis Murder,'' ''The District'' and ''Law & Order.''